New gardener with old garden and LOTS of bulbs

There are four of them....

Waiting.....

This is a pot my mother gave me with Jap maples in them. She said she did not plant anything else in it. I would dig the bulbs from the yard and drop here until I took inside to store them. This was within an hour's time and none of the other bulbs have leaves like these. Oh, the surprises and confusion.....

NOW BY BIG QUESTION. we are going to get a cold snap with the lows from 38 to 31 degrees for 10 days. DO I NEED TO MULCH OVER ALL THE LOVELIES I FOUND???

Traci you have a most interesting yard. (I tried to talk Tammy into sending her box to me)
Are those acorns on the ground in the second of the new pictures?

I would not think so. Even though we are warmer here out at my place we get into the high 20's and my bulbs seem to do fine.

Thanks, Marie. ACORNS?? I am covered up with acorns. I could feed the entire squirrel nation. I am constantly pulling up little seedling trees.

So the ones where the flowers are about to bloom don't need to be mulched?

You can find some acorns a couple of hours north of here but they do not grow in our hot desert summers. I miss them. I have amaryllis bllomms that are still good. I do not know if it a freak accident or what but while the rest of my plants froze these flower buds seem to be just fine.

Want me to ship you a seedling oak or a trash bag full of acorns?? lol

I would love a seedling but I think it may be to hot here for them and my kids would love the acorns too...

Pupil,

I'm fairly sure that the last shots you have are of hyacinths. Looks like you have quite a haul of bulbs!

Liz

Traci, you have Dmail about the Princess stuff. :)

Pupil,

I'm no expert, but I am just down the road from you, and I have all sorts of bulb foliage peeping up (and have had some even through our last freezes). I didn't do anything extra in terms of mulch. As I understand it, most of the things that are popping up (daffs, dutch iris, hyacinths, crocus, etc..) can withstand the cold snap that is coming our way. The foliage might get nipped a little bit, and if you don't like the look of that you could mulch. Some of my dutch iris foliage has brown tips from the last freeze. I would try to protect the things you have that actually have a bud or bloom on them, but other than that I think you can get by without a lot of mulch.

Liz

pupil, the last three pics you posted are definitely hyacinthus orientalis. Congrats :-) Why is everything so EARLY though? LOL>

Steve, I think my garden knows I need it to bloom as fast as possible. This way I can get them all while the getting is good. I don't know how long I will be here, so the faster the better. lol. Plus the bulbs also know that if I don't take them, no one will take care of them.

I have tried to call my mother to see if she had bulbs in this pot. But I know her, and she is not the type to plant bulbs. I have offered her lilies and such and she does not want them. Hope to hear from her soon.

Liz, thanks. I have about a 1' pile of leaves in the back yard and I think I will throw some of them on the ones with buds. I want to see at least one of these make it!! The main area I have found these is already covered with about 2' of leaves. This should give you an idea of how monumental a task this excuvation is going to be. lol.

Traci-I can't wait to get my box full!!! LOL

Ok, I spoke with my mother and she put in fresh dirt, plants and new pot. Could the neighbor's bulbs be jumping over to my yard because they have so many friend's here.

Bulbs Without Boundaries! You could start a non-profit.....

LOL

Don't tell Marie, but my box arrived today! HA HA HA

it's funny to me that your bulbs in 7a are pushing up while mine in 8b are malingering........

BTW I will have to take back my first ID.....those definitely look like Narcissus of some kind, must have been a blonde moment for me

:)

And where is the one you were going to send me?????

Hi Marie! :)

Plantnutga, I am zone 7b, which actually changed to zone 8a. I am wondering now if there is some sort of microclimate in my backyard. Also, I have thought about our weather. We went from warm, to cold, to warm. I wonder if this triggered the bulbs.

My mother is here and she "suddenly" remembered the pot had soil already in it and she had a bulb in there from several years ago. Mystery solved.

I love Bulbs Without Boundries (as long as they bound into mine!).

Pupil,

Usually I find that bulbs I plant the current year sometimes come up earlier than expected and then "settle down" in subsequent years to come up at a more appropriate time, regardless of weather. Interesting that your naturalized bulbs are up so early and we have very similar climates in terms of temperature and are at roughly the same latitude.

Here it is two weeks later and they still haven't opened. The one pictured above is just about to. How long does it take??????

Maybe you need to have a talk with them and tell them to hurry up. You have a bunch of impatient friends that want to know waht they are going to be.

Right now, they are probably trying to jump back into the ground. IT IS SLEETING!! Don't try to drive in Birmingham, AL for awhile, for all traffic will stop and everyone will rush to the grocery stores.

How funny. I lived in Northcarolina for a while and it snowed lightly and the whole town shut down and grocery stores were wiped out!!

Can you believe I took the first picture on the 6th and this one on the 18th. I don't believe they will ever open. Does the cool weather slow them down?

One little petal is trying to escape. This is the side view...

And the front. Snow expected tonight and freezing temperatures for the next few days. It will die before it blooms!!

The cool weather does slow them down. Unless it gets down in the low 20s for an extended period, I think they'll be fine. So many spring bulbs are native to harsh climates of mountainous regions and are tough as nails. In your zone I don't think you'll have a problem.

wow are you ever lucky to have a yard full of bulbs and they are already blooming? mine are under inches of snow:(:(:( but we will see them soon i know and all of the spring bulbs are my favs. if you want you can send some to me i would be happy to pay for postang. even though im in zone 5 they do well every where. and i would give them a great home. sorry to hear about the D word.... ive been through that also it is not fun at all. well good luck and my heart goes out to you gardener friends are the best friends.... ronna

The same bloom from Jan. 6th. We went through a bitter spell, so I have to assume that is the reason this is taking so long. I haven't gone out today and looked, but here are some shots from yesterday. I believe if the weather holds up, I just may get to see a bloom and ID.


Side View

Front view. Any guesses yet?

A new area I cleaned off last week. These have been under monkey grass shade, and were very yellow. They turned green overnight. Mother nature is amazing.

Around a tree I cleaned up earlier in the winter. I LOVE THIS YARD!!

I found these yesterday. Look under the monkey grass in the back. Yep, it is getting removed this weekend.

Finally, another area where I found little shoots under the grass and leaves. They have turned green as well. More clearing this weekend.

looks like it's going to be a daffodil in the pic with the yellow petals just emerging...the first top pics looked like narcissus tips coming up..how much longer before you have to be moved? I can see a mass exodus of us gardeners showing up with spade in hand...LOL

Bring it on!! I will never get all these dug up. I have no idea when I am moving as, even though he wanted out, he is dragging his feet. It could be months. As each section blooms, it is coming up. I kind of hope for later, so I can see everything bloom.

David, if you are reading this, big dig this weekend!!